I have not worked much with JavaScript and I was wondering what you would recommend for a beginner. Should I work with JavaScript, hardcoding (like I do with HTML), or would it be better to start with something like jQuery that sort of distills it for me?

If you want to learn JavaScript, then delve into the language by writing code from scratch and making effort to learn the language, its syntax and available features. If you want to learn jQuery, then delve into that by writing jQuery specific code, learning its syntax and available features.

There is no reason why you cannot do both, even at the same time! jQuery is just JavaScript, albeit written in a particular style which might not be used elsewhere. My only real piece of advise would to not become someone who "knows jQuery" to the exclusion of other JavaScript libraries and understanding the language itself.

It would be best to learn javascript then move on to jQuery. Since jQuery works off of javascript you will still have to know it to use it effectively. As Salathe said, you could learn them together, but if it is your first programming(ish) language I strongly recommend you learn it on its own first.

Thanks, both of you! I will put the effort into learning JavaScript, then. It's true that learning a language makes it where one can be more versatile than learning the "shortcuts" (which is what jQuery seems to be, essentially). I appreciate your advice!